Lai Chang Wen, the 31-year-old CEO of Ninja Van, had a strong entrepreneurial streak in him since he was a young student.

When he was still studying at Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College – Singapore’s most elite schools – Chang Wen would buy used mobile phones at below-market prices from online forum HardwareZone and resell them at a higher price.

From second-hand phones, he delved into buying bicycle parts, which he later assembled into a bicycle himself.

And again, he would sell the bicycle for a profit. All these ventures was his way of earning extra pocket money.

Then when he was a finance undergraduate at Singapore Management University, he started up his first ‘real business’, Marcella, which specialises in made-to-measure menswear.

It was ironic to say the least, considering that he has zero interest in fashion (an infamous fashion faux pas of his was wearing a pair of blue rubber slippers to work).

According to Chang Wen, he only started up Marcella because he couldn’t find a men’s shirt that fits him well.

Marcella automated the process of translating clients’ body measurements into paper patterns, and it was the perfect solution to tailoring clothes that fit like a glove.

After graduating from university, Chang Wen worked as a derivatives trader at Barclays Bank while doing business on the side.

Although investment banking was probably the best-paying job a graduate can get, Chang Wen quickly realised that he wasn’t cut out for the corporate life and didn’t want to “work for the money”.

“Money is a hygiene factor. I wanted to work to make an impact [and] learn something new every day,” he said in an On The Record video interview.

This only worried Chang Wen’s parents further, for they felt like he traded a lucrative job to be a “van driver“.

Furthermore, the team were working 20 hours a day, six days a week.

They spent their nights sleeping on a mattress on the office floor, and all their waking hours learning the ins and outs of the delivery process.

They examined the entire life cycle of a parcel – from pick-up to drop-off – and worked on improving every delivery stage using technology and algorithms.

Instead of manually sorting their parcels, they use their smartphones to scan packages, which allowed them to instantly find out parcel information such as where the parcel is heading and what should be done with it.

They also tapped on mapping technology to plot the best delivery route so drivers could deliver more faster, while saving on fuel costs.

With technology forming the core of their business, Chang Wen believes that it is what sets them apart from the rest of their competitors.

Partners that pay for this arrangement can tap Ninja Van’s technological infrastructure to optimise their own deliveries; and likewise, they can employ Ninja Van’s fleet to help with their operations too.

We believe in sharing the market with a few of our key competitors. When peak comes, we think it’s better to help each other rather than kill each other.

Despite the sharing of the backup fleets, Chang Wen assures that their systems still have total control and “full traceability” of their parcels.

In a span of about three years, the homegrown firm has expanded overseas and made its mark across six other Southeast Asia countries – Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar.

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